Albert Bates has produced a well written, very accessible and positive book. It gives an excellent summary of the accepted peak-oil theories but, more importantly, the majority of the text provides solutions and suggestions. The recipes don’t get in the way as they appear in the margins but they are interesting nonetheless. Though I’m not sure whether I’m ready to make grasshopper quesadillas yet.

Recommeneded if you’re looking for a positive and well-rounded introduction to peak-oil theory and permaculture.

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@hyperlocavore tweeted a fantastic interview with Albert Bates today.

He has a wealth of experience in the Intentional Community scene and has a lot of practical knowledge to share. But, most importantly to me, he’s also very positive about what may happen in the coming years. For example:

Q: I wanted to start by asking about something I’ve heard you say in other interviews.A lot of other people, even some of the cheery folks, tend to talk about peak oil specifically in really gloomy, sad terms.You tend to talk about it as a potentially positive development for humankind, and I wondered if you could talk about why.

A: There are a few reasons behind that I think everybody at some point has to go through the process of having the realization.That may come as kind of a rude awakening, or it may come as “Aha, I told you so!”, but at some point everybody goes through it. It tends to deepen as time goes on, and people have their own periods of weeping and gnashing the teeth, but then you have to cope, you have to get up and do something about it. I think the more important thing is to have an attitude that something can still be done. You can’t exclude the possibility that the future is still malleable, that there is still an opportunity for positive change if we exert our capacity or our abilities to do that.

….

The full interview is here. It’s quite long but well worth the read.

Whilst not the cheeriest of tomes The Long Emergency is a well written and provides a detailed grounding to the basics of peak oil. Kuntsford is US based so the scenarios are US focused but that doesn’t detract from the quality and depth of the content.

My only criticism is that it could offer more in the way of solutions to negate some of the impact of the doom laden content. Therefore if you are reading this you probably want to have something positive lined up for straight after. The Transition Handbook or The Post Petroleum Cookbook would be good choices.

I’ve kept this short as there are already many excellent reviews of this book out there, for example this one. So I’ll just end by saying that we’ve both read this book cover to cover and it comes highly recommended.

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The book initially provides a brief and accessible introduction to the dual concepts of peak-oil (or energy decent if you prefer the euphemism) and man made climate change. The rest of the book is then spent describing Rob Hoskin’s solution to the problem that I can summarise in a two words: local resilience. 

It goes into some depth about how Totnes in Devon, the first transition town, is doing and apart from making you want to move to Totnes it does also give you plenty of material that you can use to emulate that in your home town.

If you buy and read this book it will almost certainly change your life, for good. 

A detailed review of the book by Patrick Whitefield can be found over on the transition culture blog.

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